Khaleda Zia made the request when Chairperson of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Board of Trustees, Angelne S Kamba and Director General of IRRI Dr RP Cantrell called on her at her office in the afternoon.

"We want to achieve food autarky. In Bangladesh, land is limited compared to our huge population. So, we are eager to have optimum output from a small land," she told the IRRI official.

Khaleda hoped that IRRI would come up with more helping hands to cooperate in our ongoing domestic research works on boosting food production and improving the quality.

Both the IRRI chairperson and the DG assured of their increased cooperation in this regard.

The IRRI DG apprised the prime minister that research works to develop various drought and saline resistant rice varieties are going on and some of which are in Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI).

The prime minister welcomed the dignitaries and wished their board meeting in Dhaka a success.

Mentioning that IRRI's long relation and close cooperation with Bangladesh, the IRRI Trustees chairperson said IRRI is providing assistance for various research projects run by BRRI apart from jointly carrying out some projects.

She also apprised Khaleda that IRRI is also sponsoring various training programmes to Bangladeshi rice scientists both at home and abroad.

"We are impressed at the magnificent research success of BRRI," she told the prime minister.